CHILDREN'S RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM (with the support of IRCHSS "New ideas")

Various

Room 226, 2nd Floor, Western Gateway Building, UCC

10:30 :: 7th March 2012

Programme Information

IntroductionIreland is fortunate to have a wide range of skilled and experienced scholars researching children’s experiences and lives. This expertise cuts across disciplines and includes researchers in law, education, social work, social policy, psychology, paediatrics and nursing, to name just some examples. These scholars are based in every academic institution in Ireland and they incorporate some well established lecturing and research staff, and a large community of graduate students, post-doctorate scholars and early career researchers. Many researchers already work across disciplines and institutions understanding the value of cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional perspectives. Many are also connected internationally, with academic colleagues and international institutions. Several academic institutions have inter-disciplinary research centres focused on children’s research and in others – including UCC – clusters of researchers have been working together to build relationships, collaborate on research projects and to develop joint programmes.

Aims of the SymposiumThe aim of this Symposium, which is supported by an IRCHSS New Ideas grant, is to explore the potential for collaboration between children’s researchers in Ireland. Viewed against the above backdrop, this day-long event is designed to:• Establish and build relationships between individual scholars;• Identify the experience and expertise of these scholars;• Establish their core capacities (including knowledge of research methodologies)• Identify the potential for cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional research, and • Consider how the impact of existing research can be maximised through engagement with media and policy makers.

The event is also designed to enable the sharing of experiences between researchers in these areas, to identify the barriers and enablers to undertaking quality cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional research in Ireland and to consider what steps are necessary to promote greater collaboration in this area.

The National Strategy on Research and Data on Children’s LivesIn November 2011, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs published its National Strategy on Research and Data on Children’s Lives. The Strategy maps a path to the fulfilment of the National Children’s Strategy goal that children’s lives will be better understand and in this regard it sets out a plan to guide and support the development of research and data around children’s lives over the next five years. The Strategy notes that a number of steps are key to its successful implementation including building capacity, developing methodologies and improving the understanding of the potential of research and data to inform policy and practice. The aim of this Symposium is thus to enable Ireland’s children’s researchers to explore the Strategy’s relevance to the academic sector and to identify how researchers at third level institutions can contribute to its implementation.

The Strategy sets out five goals – based on the Agenda for Children’s Services – which inform its aims and objectives. It is reasonable to expect that these will provide the basis for the award of Government funding in relation to children’s research and this makes the study of the Strategy by the academic community very important.

An Inclusive Networking SpaceThis Symposium is intended to provide an inclusive, inter-active and informal space for children’s researchers to come together to share their experiences and develop their relationships with a view to advancing Ireland’s research agenda in this area. It will provide an opportunity to study the potential of the National Research Strategy from an academic perspective and in doing so it seeks to identify new research partners and new sources of funding for children’s research through inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration. While the Programme is outlined overleaf, the event is intended to be participatory and the agenda will be driven by the contributions of participants on the day.

To RegisterTo maximise the impact of the event, every participant is asked to fill in the Registration Form and return it to me at u.kilkelly@ucc.ie by Friday March 2nd 2012. This information will be included in the Symposium packs to enable communication after the event between participants.

PROGRAMME

The Symposium will take place in the 2nd Floor Meeting room (226) of the Western Gateway Building at University College Cork. See the map for details:

Please note parking is extremely limited on campus.

10.30 Coffee11.00 Introduction to the Symposium and to each other11.30 The Strategy on Research and Data on Children’s Lives: Overview12.00 Inter-disciplinary focus on the Strategy’s Five Outcome Areas and Research and Data Priorities13.00 Lunch14.00 Research Funding and Collaboration15.00 Disseminating Research – using social media and communicating with the public and policy makers16.00 Next Steps – how to promote collaboration16.15 Close